Volume 35, Number 2 (Spring) 2000
Light, Audrey, and Wayne Strayer. 2000. "Determinants of College Completion: School Quality or Student Ability?" Journal of Human Resources 35(2):299-332.
We investigate whether the "match" between student ability and college quality is an important determinant of college graduation rates. We jointly estimate a multinomial probit model of college attendance decisions in which the alternatives are no college and attendance at college in four quality categories, and a binomial probit model of subsequent graduation decisions. By allowing the error terms to be correlated across alternatives and time periods, we identify the effects of observed factors net of their correlation with unobservables. We find that students of all ability levels have higher chances of graduating if the quality level of their college "matches" their observed skill level.
Audrey Light is an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. Wayne Strayer is an assistant professor of economics at Texas A&M University. Wayne Strayer gratefully acknowledges support from the Bush Program in the Economics of Public Policy. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning December 2000 through November 2003 from Audrey Light, 410 Arps Hall, 1945 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43210.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X